Hyderabad [Telangana], Dec 7 (ANI): Braving the morning chill in Telangana, around 23.4 per cent of electorates came out to cast their votes, choosing their favourite candidates for the Assembly on Friday.

It was a pleasant surprise to see even ace Tennis star Sania Mirza turning up at Film Nagar Cultural Center in Hyderabad at around 12:15 pm today to cast her ballot.

For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) was installed across the region for smooth conduct of voting. After a person exercised his franchise on EVM, VVPAT attached to the machines displayed for seven seconds the choice made by the voter.

In Telangana, the polling commenced at 7 am and will conclude at 5 pm. As many as 2.8 crore electors including 4.6 lakh differently-abled voters are eligible to vote at 32, 815 polling stations.

A total of 1821 candidates including 139 women are in the fray.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi is contesting in all 119 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party is battling for 118 seats. The Congress led by its president Rahul Gandhi is contesting in 99 seats, Telugu Desam Party in 13, Telangana Jana Samithi in eight and Communist Party of India in three seats respectively.(ANI)